Sprinter Repaint Complete – Finishing Touches

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So after remodeling the interior of the RV, and then having her repainted, what’s left?

Stripes!

The first thing Stef and I did was head over to Interstate Image to get Das Bus a couple of stripes.  This led, of course, to a “difference in creative vision” between Stef and me about how wild to go with the stripes.  If Stef had gotten her way, the RV would have come away looking like “Squiggle” from Dot and Line.  I’m happy to report, saner heads prevailed, and with a couple magnetic signs, and the (very reasonably priced) stripes from Interstate Image… Behold!

(Yes, I know she’s dirty – it was snowing that day…)

Clear Bra!

One of the things I noticed before we got Das Bus repainted was that there were many (literally, dozens) of rock chips on the hood. And the hood on these older Sprinters is pretty vertical, so I didn’t want to see that happen again.  Not only that, but with the repaint, we painted the grill and plastic bumpers, which might chip easily.  How to protect all that paint?  Clear Bra, of course, is the answer.

We took Das Bus to JC Automotion, here in Salt Lake City.  I’ve had them put clear bra and window tint on my cars in the past.  They’ve always done good work; they use real 3M films; and I’ve never had a problem with anything they’ve done.  Not only that, they have a very tall bay that can accommodate RVs.

The clear bra is installed to cover the ENTIRE hood, the entire front bumper, forward-facing parts of the fenders, and all the louvers on the grille.  They did their usual fantastic job.  Check out the glamour shot of Das Bus.

The new headlights add even more sex appeal.

And Tint!

But the other thing we had done has really got me excited, and I’m going to be putting together a formal test with some data in the very near future.  We got the front side windows in our Sprinter tinted (a legal shade, of course) with 3M Crystalline film. Why?  Because I’m tired of baking in the driver’s seat when the sun is coming in from the side!

Now, I’ll warn you, this stuff is NOT cheap, but it is supposed to block something like 60% of the heat coming through the windows.  That’s huge.  Here’s me with Jesus doing an impromptu test of the rejected heat.  This is what I’m going to test in a more controlled way in the near future.

If this works well enough, it could be the end of running the generator to power the coach AC while driving!  JC Automotion even threw in the “eyebrow strip” of tint across the top of the windshield at no charge.  Sweet!  If you’re in the market for tint or clear bra on your RV, I really recommend them.

Stay tuned for the results of my tint testing!